With Rs 1.8-lakh offer, kingpin roped in Jet airhostess at his Bandra boutique

“The boutique is frequented by staffers from several airlines. They often go there to buy or even, at times, sell some foreign-made cosmetics, which they would bring from places they had traveled to. This is where Aliah was also approached by the conspirators,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Rakesh Maria.

“We suspect this is the place where many other airline staffers could have also been approached,” he said.

Besides illegal immigration to the US, the Crime Branch has recently busted another racket — so far unrelated to the first — involving illegal immigration to the UK. But now, said Maria, “our investigations point to some more similar operations like the ones already unravelled.”

Maria said: “We are investigating, the US consulate has been extremely co-operative. Separate letters have been sent to the passport and visa offices along with the details of the persons who have immigrated illegally, and communication is also open with offices at the Central Government to verify details of the persons who have wrongfully emigrated.”

The racket, in which Aliah is involved, is different from other “illegal immigration rackets,” investigators say, as it shows “a specific bent towards scouting for carriers in the airline industry” and also irregularities on the part of several agencies.

Today, Jet Airways confirmed to The Indian Express that Aliah was working as an airhostess for the airline adding that her services have been terminated after her name cropped up in the Crime Branch investigation.

At Aliah’s home in a residential complex at Bandra, her parents were away when The Indian Express visited. Her uncle, who identified himself as Shirazi, said: “Aliah is a very good girl and we do not believe that she could have done anything wrong. I stay outside India and have come down to the city with my wife after hearing the news of her arrest.”

At this stage, the Crime Branch is looking at 10 cases in which nine persons have illegally emigrated to the US and one to the UK with the help of three of the arrested accused — Yusuf, Altaf Hassan Shaikh and Rajesh Ghemlawala. The fifth person arrested in this case is Rajesh Kumar Trivedi, who was posing as Aliah’s husband and planning to shift to the US.

At least 72 other airhostesses across the airline industry who applied for tourist visas this year to took their relatives to the US are under the scanner, the Crime Branch said.

In the remand application filed in court in connection with the case, the Crime Branch has said forged documents for eight other people had been processed by the arrested group earlier and were rejected by the US consulate.

The accused and their roles, according to the police:

• Yusuf Akram Baig: Boutique owner Baig’s main role was to scout for young airhostesses and even flight pursers who could take illegal immigrants with them as relatives. “He would approach the airhostesses and flight pursers and convince them that the paper work and all the documentation will be done by them and that the airline staff needed to just accompany the illegal immigrant,” said Maria. Baig has told investigators that “airline staff were targeted as they were aware of immigration and other formalities as they travelled frequently”.

In the remand, Yusuf is named as one of the key accused having himself taken “three women with him — two to the US posing as their husband and one to the UK — earlier this year.” He charged Rs 3 lakh each. Baig was also responsible for getting false attestations and forged documents.

• Aliah Sayyed Abbas Ali Rizvi: Aliah is said to have told Crime Branch investigators that she was “grounded for the last three months by the airline as she was overweight”. The investigation found Baig approached Aliah with a commission of Rs 1.8 lakh. She was to take a person by the name of Rajesh Kumar Trivedi, who would pose as her husband on a tourist visa, to the US. Aliah was convinced that she did not need to do “anything more than accompany the immigrant” as all the paper work and documents were made available by the co-accused, said Maria. Baig and other touts would process forged documents to prove that airline staffers like Aliah are indeed relatives of persons like Trivedi by showing false attestations like marriage certificates. Return tickets of airhostesses like Aliah were always paid for by the illegal immigrant. Once the immigrant reached the US or UK, the “job of the airhostess or flight purser” was over.

• Rajesh Ghemlawala: Ghemlawala was a tout asked to identify persons from Ahmedabad who could be sent abroad on a tourist visa.

• Altaf Hassan Shaikh: Shaikh, the oldest among the accused, was the one responsible to ensure that the documents for obtaining visas and passports were in order. Shaikh himself has taken six women to the US using forged documents, said Maria. His role was to match the profile of an airhostess or flight purser with that of the illegal immigrant.

• Rajesh Kumar Trivedi: Trivedi wanted to shift to the US to start a business. He was planning to travel on a one-way ticket along with Aliah. To show that “he would return to Mumbai, the other accused managed to get a bogus purchase deed of a property in Mira Road along with a rubber stamp on a bogus document claiming it was from the Collector’s office,” said Maria.